The Khmers (Cambodians) of

284 Salutary influence of irrigation the narrow strip of coastal plain in central
Vietnam (Annam) to absorb the southward moving Vietnamese. Further, Vietnamese who had traditional antipathy for highlands,
had made an inveterate choice for deltaic lowlands and hence their excessive reliance on the wet rice cultivation like the contemporary societies of mainland. Yet the low-level plain much of it being laid just 3 m above mean sea level, has been vulnerable enough, being exposed to the tidal action that impaired the drainage system in due course.
In fact, the entire deltaic plain has been equally susceptible to the disasters of annual flooding or inundation by the Red river system crisscrossing the lowland region covering an area of 15000 km. Because of this peculiar hydrographic situation that had existed throughout the history, an elaborate
Chinese-modeled hydraulic system with a wide network of canals and dykes was built to control the raging floods and to improve the drainage conditions, besides ensuring irrigation for double cropping of rice.
Under the direct rule of Han dynasty, its officials promoted the extension of agriculture into the previously uncultivated lands during the first century AD itself. The
Han soldiers (known as soldier-farmers)
supervised the digging of ditches to irrigate fields in the Red river delta. This irrigation system promoted the process of integration of Vietnamese and Chinese societies (Hall. The long period of Sinicization (BC AD) successfully accomplished the development of Chinese-modeled hydraulic civilization entailing the Chinese traditional system and material basis. An elaborate dyke and drainage system in the Red river delta, developed by 10
th century AD,
testifies to an advanced pattern of economic and political organization. Thus, the flood control and drainage, as Frayer (observes, were always the primary concerns of the state whereas the irrigation was essentially an issue of private (village)
responsibility. Though the irrigation methods were said to have been primitive (Dobby,
1958), the traditional irrigation works were supplemented by a series of new dams and canals which mitigated the hazards of seasonal floods. However, and in course of time, as Fisher (1966) pointed out, the innovative and advanced agricultural methods of Chinese were destined ultimately to give the Vietnamese a decisive advantage over the Cambodians with whom they came into contact later in the 18
th and 19
th centuries. Despite a highly sophisticated drainage system, a quick growing variety,
known as floating rice that could grow up tom, has been better adapted to the prolonged period of inundation.
Champa which formed a southern part of
Vietnam from 2
nd to 15
th century AD, was one of the earliest Indianized states in the mainland Southeast Asia. Being a coastal- based state, the Champa’s narrow coastal strip was interspersed with lagoons,
marshes, shifting sand dunes, and the subdued hillocks. Thus the Cham settlements were scattered over the river valleys and on terraced hillsides. Though they did not have the agricultural surplus to meet their political ambitions, Chams had developed a shared water management system comprising channels and dykes.
Paddy fields were cultivated by the use of large waterwheels for irrigation. Though there was no evidence of extensive

Asian Agri-History Vol. 9, No. 4, 2005 285
hinterland agrarian development in the absence of the vast plain land, Chams were growing floating rice (hundred-day rice)
which the Chinese had adapted in southern
China (Mabbet, 1986; Hall, 1992).

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